Not-exactly-local Salad

It's winter, so none of these ingredients were locally grown. But I really wanted a salad!

Ingredients:
Italian bagged salad mix
fresh strawberries
fresh orange
pomegranate
red onion
dried cranberries
feta cheese
chicken
Honey-Dijon vinaigrette

Directions:
Place salad mix in a large bowl.

Wash and dry all fresh produce. Peel orange, and either section or cut into bite-sized pieces. Halve or quarter strawberries. Seed pomegranate. Thinly slice onion. Add all too the salad mix, and add feta, cranberries, and chicken. Toss with vinaigrette.

My note: Use any chicken you like...grilled, rotisserie, etc. All I had tonight was breaded chicken patties, so I cooked as per directions on package, and then cut them into bite-sized pieces to add to salad. Mushrooms and pecans would be great in this too.

Here is a priceless tutorial on how to 'open' a pomegranate tidily!

Lentil Soup

Ingredients:
1 onion, diced
3 ribs of celery, diced
1/2 cup shoestring carrots (you could peel and slice whole carrots, but I had shoestring, and it was easier to use them)
1 cup link sausage, diced
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 14 oz. can chicken broth
4 to 6 cups water
2 cups lentils
1/2 cup fresh spinach

Directions:
In a large pan, heat about 2 Tablespoons of olive oil. Add diced onion, celery, carrot, and sausage. Saute, stirring occassionally, till onion is translucent. Add canned tomatoes (do not drain), chicken broth, and 4 cups water, and heat to boiling. Add the lentils, and stir. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 to 60 minutes until lentils are tender. Check occassionally during cooking, and add rest of water if needed/desired. At end of cooking time, stir in the fresh spinach.

My notes: This was very quick to pull together and get in the pot. And it was quite good. very hearty. I was tired, so I just served with crackers, but it would have been great with cornbread.